1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and, more particularly, to a recording apparatus using a continuous recording medium.
2. Related Background Art
In a variety of conventional recording apparatus, the presence/absence of a recording medium (to be referred to as recording paper hereinafter) is detected prior to recording, and then recording is performed.
Conventional recording paper detecting means are arranged as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, respectively.
In the detecting means of FIG. 4, recording paper 3 wound around a platen 1 is guided between a recording head 2 and the platen 1. A sensor 4 is located at a scanning position (to be referred to as a recording position hereinafter) of the recording head 2 to detect the presence/absence of the recording paper 3.
With the above arrangement, recording is initiated after the sensor 4 detects at least the leading end of the recording paper 3.
Since the recording head 2 and the sensor 4 are located at the recording position in the recording paper detecting means of this type, various control sequences such as control for setting the leading end of the recording paper 3 to be separated by a predetermined distance from the recording start position can be performed easily.
The detecting means of FIG. 5 is employed when a sensor 4 cannot be located at the recording position, e.g., when no space is assured to locate the sensor at the recording position. One sensor 5 is located at the delivery side of a recording position A, and the other sensor 6 is located at the feed side of the recording position A.
With the above arrangement, recording is initiated only when the two sensors 5 and 6 simultaneously detect the presence of recording paper. When the arrangements in FIGS. 4 and 5 are employed, problems are not incurred in an apparatus for recording an image having a predetermined length, e.g., an apparatus using paper sheets to record images within the area of the paper sheet. In this case, if the recording start position is controlled appropriately, paper is not used up during image recording. However, if continuous recording paper such as a roll of paper or fan fold paper is used, recording paper may be used up even during image recording, resulting in inconvenience.